Intrigued by this article, I ran up to Woods Canyon yesterday, to educate myself some more on catching Tiger's, instead of fishing for them.

When I arrived in the parking lot around 11:30, there were a whopping 3 cars in the parking lot, none with trailers. There was one fly fisher in an inflatable raft working the southern bank from the boat ramp eastwards. I heard him telling another fisher that he had picked up 9, but no mention of species was given, let alone sizes.

Weather was mostly overcast with skinny clouds, winds from the ENE around 5-10mph, just what the weather forecast indicated. Temperature was hovering around 39*F. Not too bad for a fall day on the Rim, especially once I bundled up in my fleece/wool gear!

Once on the water, I immediately hooked up with a dinky Rainbow, perhaps 12", but he was spunky! Definitely thought he was a bigger cousin with the gusto in the fight. Not a jumper, however, but splashed me real good as I was releasing it from temporary detention status.

I had tied up a #12 Black SSL (thanks, Dub!) with a red, glass, bead head, fished below an indicator. The fly was positioned 8' below the indicator, as I worked my way across to the north bank, working westwards.

Before making it there, I had two more 12" rainbows to hand, with several LDR's. All fought like a heavyweight, instead of the dinks they actually were.

Being the only one on the water at this point, I worked the north bank for the next several hours, catching many rainbows and several Tiger's. The biggest Tiger to hand on the north bank went a solid 17" and felt heavy (for Woods Canyon, anyway) but I had no scale to measure it. Tried to add the picture, but was unable to do so. I'll play around with the computer and see if I can figure it out. Regardless, it felt really nice to have some good heft and pull on the line for once. This particular fish had lots of fight and for a moment, I thought I had a brown on the line, minus the aerials.

Switched to a #14 light olive SSl with cream colored, glass bead head, and the fishing turned into catching big time. Kept up with the indicator fishing, as this was proving to be the ticket on this outing. Lots of fish to hand with an untold number of LDR's and mighty tugs.

About an hour before sunset, I had re-positioned myself on the southern bank, east of the boat ramp, still using the light olive SSL, tossing the bug right up to the bank and retrieving as soon as it hit the water. BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM! went the catching, mostly all Tiger's with a few Rainbow tossed in for good measure. All fish caught or those which escaped where all within 6' of the bank and fought quite well.

The wind played just enough during the day to create an additional amount of movement in the water column to entice the strikes, thanks to the mild chop topside.

I think I'm going to enjoy catching Tiger's in the future, as I like the way they fight, pull, dive, go sideways, with the right amount of rod bend. Perhaps I should remember to breathe in the future while fighting this magnificent species.

Emerson mentioned on another thread that there are bigger Tiger's in Becker, guess I'd best get up there before it ices over completely to chase them...

Around 5pm, my feet were cooling off rather quickly, my bladder was screaming at me, so I elected (or forced) to get off the water to remedy both these minor influences.

All told, I had 18 Rainbow ranging in size from 10" to 14" which fought well and 5 Tiger's ranging in size from 12" to 17", which really put a bend in my rod. An untold number of LDR's, hits, bumps, tugs, pulls and other missed opportunities made this a fun day to be on the water.

Throughout the day, there were only 3 bank fishers and 1 raft to enjoy the solitude of Woods Canyon Lake. A lone Osprey and pair of Eagle's made a few appearances, but otherwise it was quiet and peaceful day on this particular Rim country lake.